‘A creative bid.’ Sadness in KC after city fails to make top 20 for Amazon’s HQ2

Amazon announced Thursday morning that 20 metro areas remain in the running for its second headquarters, and that list did not include Kansas City.

City Manager Troy Schulte issue this statement:

“Kansas City’s Amazon bid was a great team effort, and showed how leaders across the metro can come together to work on important projects like this. It was a creative bid, and we will continue to be aggressive in pursuing these opportunities for KCMO. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Also, the national publicity for Kansas City generated by this competition shared news about our city’s momentum and economic growth.”

The reaction elsewhere Thursday morning was swift. Disappointed, but not surprised really.

“Amazon is missing out, but a sign we have more work we can do to be more competitive in the future…,” tweeted Kansas City Councilman Quenton Lucas.

Amazon is missing out, but a sign we have more work we can do to be more competitive in the future… Kansas City misses the cut for $5B Amazon HQ2 campus - Kansas City Business Journal https://t.co/pZAtit9gbv

“Shout out to @MayorSlyJames for all you did to get #Amazon to come to Kansas City,” Catherine posted. “Lesson learned… infrastructure/schools are critical to get the best companies to come & stay. The mayor had the vision, the people need to start understanding it takes us all to make it happen!”

Shout out to @MayorSlyJames for all you did to get #Amazon to come to Kansas City. Lesson learned… infrastructure/schools are critical to get the best companies to come &amp; stay. The mayor had the vision, the people need to start understanding it takes us all to make it happen!

“We r disappointed, but no reason to hang our heads,” posted Tim Cowden of the Kansas City Area Development Council. “Our region is better for the effort. My initial reaction is @amazon focus on population density in eastern US & Texas. We left it all out there. No regrets. Thanks 2 all who came together behind 1 #KC region proposal. Onward.”

“I think @MayorSlyJames should ask about their return policy,” said Stephen Yeargin.

Amazon said it reviewed more than 238 proposals from across the nation, Canada and Mexico.

The company expects to create 50,000 high-paying jobs and invest more than $5 billion in the city where it opens.

Here’s the list of cities that are moving on to the next phase of the process:

▪ Atlanta

▪ Austin, Texas

▪ Boston

▪ Chicago

▪ Columbus, Ohio

▪ Dallas

▪ Denver

▪ Indianapolis

▪ Los Angeles

▪ Miami

▪ Montgomery County, Md.

▪ Nashville

▪ Newark, N.J.

▪ New York City

▪ Northern Virginia, Va.

▪ Philadelphia

▪ Pittsburgh

▪ Raleigh, N.C.

▪ Toronto

▪ Washington, D.C.

Amazon said it would be working with each of the candidate locations on the coming months to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership that can accommodate the company’s hiring plans as well as benefit its employees and the local community.